A really rocky switchover to new hardware, leaving the mail server disconnected here and there, turns
out to slim down the selection of letters this column gets. Suppose that goes without saying doesn't it.
Anyway, let's get to the answering bit.

James and Elaine were not boyfriend/girlfriend if I recall. He loved her but she was with the main dude from the monastery. She died while he was gone and he tried to resurrect her. James entered the priesthood when he realized he couldn't have her. I could finish up the story for the guy if he wants.

Did the Phantasy Star collection ever come out? I think it was 1, 2, and 4 or something. Was for the PS2. And I'm not talking about PSO.

Gryphon

Googleshng:
That sounds a bit better yeah. Really, the only strong recollections I have about James there are "I loved
that there dead girl!" and "All poor people are sinners who deserve to die." Not really the most upbeat
guy him.

As for yon collection of Phantasy Star games, it's in limbo. Which I suppose should be expected when you
announce a collection of games before all those games are actually released.

Oh yeah, that.

On your April 05 Q&A there was an user asking about GCN RPGs, and I
was surprised you didn't mention Tales of Symphonia. So, I'm curious:
You have something against this game, or you just shamefully forgot
about it? :)

Badaro

Googleshng:
Well, personally, I've never really been a fan of the series, thus haven't played it, thus can't really
speak for it. It seems to be plenty popular
though.

Andrew I am not.

dear 'Drew:
i was wondering why wasn't Metal Gear Solid Acid for the PSP considered an RPG. It has everything but experience and levels. Are levels THAT important?
i bought my PSP yesterday, and was POed because it has a dead-blue pixel near the damn center of the screen, and EB Games said that they will not change it for pixel problems. Sony sure "did it" this time...
rocker-otaku

Googleshng:
Uh... no? A system of experience is pretty much the defining element of an RPG when it comes down to it.
Yon Metal Gear game meanwhile is just the standard Metal Gear experience I'm told (not an RPG), with the
added gimmick of doing everything by playing cards (not an RPG element, although it's a fad commonly found
in them these days.

As for the dead pixel thing, that's a pretty common problem I'm told. Goes without saying really. Inherent
design flaw, which may actually be intentional, but let's not get into that.

This silliness

"My hardware will live on, inside you!"

Of course, I get no tilde, but you've obviously seen the brilliant re-enactment of FFVI's ending sequence with consoles as the main characters. For everyone else, I would afford them the chance to view such brilliance here. It's a bit better if you've seen the excellent ending to FFVI, so you can see the parallels, but it's still great nonetheless.

What a boring time for video games. I suppose I'll just have to wait for E3 to get me excited...

- Feep "Hmm. Old nostalgic RPG time. Lufia 2, perhaps?"

Googleshng:
Yeah, that was indeed what I was refering to last week. Someone seriously had a lot of time on their hands.

Our Cultural Heritage

Hey there Cast,

Sorry about the long ass random andecdote, but after
that there was the thing about Square's announced
gameplan from a few years ago and people lobbying for
a horrible game so yeah, I'll try and keep the letters
short from now on.

And to the question you answered oh well I'll have to
actually invest time money and energy since I can't
download something off the net and fiddle with it til
I get bored... so uh yeah guess I'll still only be
known for my exceedingly long letters

Anyway as to an actual question

Well since I've never played a Dragon Warrior/Quest
title before, and since that may very well be the only
good thing from Square Enix in some time, What exactly
are the Dragon Quest games like, are they turned
based, are there secret areas to explore etc. or is it
a hack and slash drug arround by your balls to the
next plot event type of game?

Arros Raikou

Winner of a & and guy who tries to keep it under the limit...

Googleshng:
Wow. I'd figure most people have played at least one of them, but then, it'd be the first, which isn't
too fair. Anyway, to put things into perspective for you, take the general gameplay of FF5, and refine
it for a decade or so. You've got a big fantasy setting to explore, you have a neat little system where
you can have a character learn all the abilities from a given class, then switch to another and learn
some more without losing your old ones. Traditionally, the series is very, well, traditional. Although
DQ8 there seems to have finally shaken the look and feel of an NES game. Oh, and then there's the slimes.
Gotta love the slimes. As for the issue of whether you can explore the game more or less freely or not,
generally you can, although 7 was an exception to this.

The Last Laugh:

Sorry the column was so late today. Bit of an emergency around here. Anyway though, on a lighter note,
These are about to end. I'm hoping
someone's waiting until the last minute on the one that's still at 50 cents. That'd just be sad.

In other news, the person hosting that anime music video for Inu-Yasha I made forever ago (when nobody
in this country had heard of it, and nobody knew there'd end up being so darn much of it) told me it's
getting a truckload of hits. Evidently it's the number one return on video searches for the show. So uh,
if someone links you to it, you might want to conserve said host's bandwidth. It's not all that impressive.